Workmen's advocate., 1887-03-26
SOCIALISM AND ITS DEMANDS.

A century or so ago there was com paratively no poverty in America. The reason of this lay in the scanty popula- tion. To-day we find our country in- creased in wealth and in numbers, but with these has come an enormous in- crease in poverty. The increase of pop has brought out the few at the expense of the many. This development is per fectly natural and not to be unexpected. The man of self-denial and industry must inevitably acquire great advantages over the man of idleness and imprudence.
 The men of less prudence and energy must become dependent on the former both for sustenance and position. These are the relations which men to-day bear towards each other, and out of the same bitter and fierce struggle has arisen. Socialism is one and perhaps the most important expression of the struggle.
 Because one succeeds and another fails, because one is happy and another is miserable, because one is educated and powerful and another ignorant and week because such is the inevitable outcome of our present industrial system. Social ism aims to destroy the system altogeth- CT, and hopes thereby to abolish the evils but retain for each and every per son the blessings in a more moderate for,n. Socialism is defined by Webster as ia theory of society which advocates a better arrangement of the social rela- tion3 of mankind than that which has hitherto prevailed" Communism is a theory which advocates community of property. Socialism, as rule, is of a communistic order, though not necessa. rily so. The main ideas of modera So- cialism are that the State should control all industrial operations, own all the raw material and the instruments of produc- tion. give to every man the right to labor and to retain the product of his labor, and oblige the individual to stife his ambitious yearnings and work for the common good and the common happi- ness of his fellow men.
 Socialism traces it's origin far back in- to history. Plato in his "Republic" sets forth an ideal State, not greatly differ ing from the dreams of Socialist of to- day. Plato probably borrowed most of his ideas on government from the con- stitution of Sparta, the work of Lycur- gus. How truly does he describe the situation, when he says, "Any ordinary city is in fact two cities, one the city of the poor, the other of the rich, at war with one another" But Plato's ideal State was perfect unit, where none were rich and none were poor, where communism existed in it's widest sense, but however, where there were slaves to perform the work. Sir Thomas More in his Utopia" published scheme similar to Plato's in almostevery respect, except in that of marriage. Campanella, oi Spain, in the early part of the eleventh century published "The City of the Sun" in which he advocated communism in its broadest sense. In the eighteenth century Msbly, Rousseau, Morelly and Brissot, though differing in minor de tails agree in attacking the same institu. tions and advocating the same principles These writings had great influence al the time of the French Revolution, ana from them the modern Socialists derive their ideas and stimulus. The early part of the present century was characterized by the trial of philanthropic schemes oi a communistic type. The names oi Robert Owen, St. Simon and Fourier suggest of themselves the folly and i'm
 practicability of the different plans
 From France the scene of action is trans ferred to Germany. Ferdinand Lassall, stands pre-eminent among the early Q